All the Chicken Littles who root for, or follow in passing, the UCLA basketball team, or who write and talk about the Bruins in media outlets, weren’t left with much to worry about or nit pick Saturday evening in Phoenix.

Sure, the sky — and season — came dangerously close to crashing on Bruin heads a week ago Saturday night in the Honda Center before they escaped Orange County with a second-round NCAA Tournament win over Texas A&M.

And, yes, Western Kentucky, a No. 12 seed, did slice away all but four points from the 21-point edge UCLA held at intermission Thursday night in a West Regional semifinal before the foul- and turnover-plagued Bruins recouped and won by “only” 10 points.

Couple those two games with three or four “near escapes” down the stretch against Pacific-10 Conference competition – escapes made possible, some believe, by a perceived officiating oversight or ineptitude – and faith in a coach and program that had a 96-16 record over three seasons was teetering.

So I suppose UCLA’s performance against a very good, 30-win Xavier team, which resulted in an eased-up 76-57 victory, calmed some nerves — for the time being.

Of course, the Bruins’ opponent next Saturday night in the San Antonio Alamodome in the program’s third consecutive Final Four appearance will be one of two very good teams, South Regional top seeds Memphis and Texas, who meet today in Houston.

So there will soon be reason enough to resume fretting over the disappearance of Josh Shipp’s jump shot, the inconsistent play of guards Darren Collison and Russell Westbrook, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute’s 37 different injuries and, of course, Howland’s “over-controlling” of UCLA’s offense.

And, come Saturday, Howland’s Bruins will be prepared to do all they can keep that sky from crashing down one more time.

And then there were two

Later Saturday night, in front an adoring, mostly baby (pardon me, “Carolina”) blue-clad crowd in Charlotte, Roy Williams’ North Carolina club – the overall No. 1 seed in the tournament – held a 12-point advantage at intermission and appeared well on their way to pummeling the Louisville Cardinals in the same fashion they did Mount St. Mary’s (by 39 points), Arkansas (31) and Washington State (21).

But Coach Rick Pitino’s team finally starting doing the things a team is going to have to do to knock off the Tar Heels, most notably slow down their transition attack and make them play half-court defense for extended periods.

The Cardinals cut their deficit to two points with six minutes to play but, ultimately, were too sloppy with the ball, committing three consecutive turnovers down the stretch that were a cumulative killer.

And they were never able to do anything with Tyler Hansbrough, the junior center who finished with 28 points and 13 rebounds, and made enough critical plays to help wrap up what ended as an 83-73 victory in the East final and secure the Tar Heels’ air fare to San Antonio.

The performance wrapped up the John R. Wooden Award hardware for Hansbrough.

Balloting closes out Monday and Michael Beasley of Kansas State, Kevin Love of the Bruins and D.J. Augustin of Texas should collect a healthy percentage of the votes – but not as many as Hansbrough will.

So, with top seeds UCLA and North Carolina taking up two of the Final Four slots, Memphis (vs. Texas in the South final in Houston) and Kansas (vs. Davidson in the Midwest final in Detroit) can create the first-ever “all-No.1 seed” Final Four field today.

Last year there were two 1s (eventual champion Florida and finalist Ohio State) and a couple of 2s (UCLA and Georgetown).

The last time there were as many three 1s was in 1999 (Duke, Michigan State and eventual champion Connecticut).

The Memphis-Texas game will draw plenty of Southern California attention from both the Bruins and their coaches and the legions that follow them.

The game could provide the tournament with its best head-up matchup so far, between the two most talented point guards in college basketball, Memphis freshman Derrick Rose and Longhorns’ sophomore D.J. Augustin.

Assuming they both enter the NBA Draft (and this is an era when that’s a pretty good assumption), they could be among the first five players selected in June.

It could be the most entertaining game of the tournament, as well.

Who guards sophomore guard Stephen Curry when Kansas plays Curry and his Davidson teammates this evening in Detroit?

Jayhawks’ coach Bill Self has multiple options.

Look for senior Russell Robinson and junior Mario Chalmers – both two-time members of the Big 12 Conference’s All-Defense team – to split the duties.

If they keep Curry in check – and, based on what he’s done against Gonzaga, Georgetown and Wisconsin, that means anything in the 25-points or less range – Kansas will earn a game against the program’s former coach, who is now running the Tar Heels, in the Alamodome.